Easy DIY Holiday Hair Bow – Step By Step

Have you ever had your mind set on buying the perfect accessory, only to be disappointed in the end? Sometimes it’s difficult to find exactly what you are looking for. Maybe you had a different pattern, style, or color in mind. Well, when all else fails – make it yourself!

I went on a search recently for a cute bow to match my new holiday dress. After searching online and in stores for longer than I’d like to admit, I decided to give up on finding something that may not even exist. As I walked browsed the magical aisles of Hobby Lobby, it dawned on me, “Why don’t I make my own hair bow?” So just like the crafter that I am, I went for it.

Easy DIY Holiday Hair Bow

What You’ll Need

Scissors – preferably fabric scissors

1.5″ thick wired edge ribbon that are holiday patterned – the wired edge makes it easier to form it the way you want

Hot glue gun

French barrette clips

How to make your holiday bow

You will start with a 24″ ribbon with the pattern facing down.

Fold the left side of your bow down and your right side up. I hold my fingers in the middle of the ribbon to help with the folding.

Now you will take the bottom ribbon and fold it under the top. You will notice that the button flap now has the pattern facing down. Since this is a wired edge ribbon I twisted the top flap to match it.

Make a loop with the top flap by taking the end and folding it down toward you.

This is the tricky part. Take the right flap and fold it around the left loop, pulling it through into a loop. Think of it as tying your shoes. It’s the same technique.

At this point you will look at your bow and think it’s ugly. It’s uneven. The loops aren’t the same size and one flap is longer than the other. This is where you adjust the bow to your liking. Pull the back ribbon of the loops to tighten the knot and pull the front ribbon of the loops to adjust the size of your loops and your flaps. There’s no right or wrong way to do this. Make it look however you want.

Now you can cut the flaps to your liking. Just make sure your loops are the same size and your flaps are the same length.

Turn this holiday bow into a hair bow

Now you can either use the scraps that you cut from the flaps or cut a 3-inch piece of the same pattern bow to place over the knot in the middle.

Flip your bow over. Hot glue one end of the new piece of ribbon to the back of the knot.

Use the other piece to run through the bottom of the barrette. Next, find exactly where you want your barrette to be. You don’t want it to show from the front.

I glued the ribbon to the inner part of the barrette then glued the barrette to knot. You can either do it this way or glue down the other end of the ribbon to the back and then attach the barrette to it. Whatever works for you.

I ended up glueing the end of the ribbon down to the knot after applying my barrette because it was peeking out of the front.

After the glue dried on the back, I played around with the loops and flaps again to shape it to my liking.

Your DIY holiday hair bow is complete! You can add embellishments to it, like buttons or glitter if you want to get really crafty.

I recommend wearing it under a high bun or to pull your hair back on one side. You can pick up a ribbon that matches your holiday dress this year.